


False God

by SpiderCakes



Series: Waiting Below [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Magic, M/M, Witches, familiar!Peter, witch!Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:26:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21736021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiderCakes/pseuds/SpiderCakes
Summary: Peter climbs into his lap and lets out a loud meow at him. Tony looks down at the rather large cat in his lap and sighs. “Why are you screaming at me now, Peter?” he asks. Peter screams at him again and Tony sighs. “Baby, if you have something to say the least you can do is be human when you say it,” Tony tells him.
Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Series: Waiting Below [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1566604
Comments: 8
Kudos: 188





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I had this posted to my Tumblr but I liked it enough to cross post!
> 
> The first bit is a small snippet of the world, the second part is an actual fic.

Peter climbs into his lap and lets out a loud meow at him. Tony looks down at the rather large cat in his lap and sighs. “Why are you screaming at me now, Peter?” he asks. Peter screams at him again and Tony sighs. “Baby, if you have something to say the least you can do is be human when you say it,” Tony tells him.

He regrets his decision when Peter jumps off his lap and walks towards the middle of the room. Tony has seen this happen a million times but its still weird as hell to watch a cat turn into a person. “Pay attention to me!” Peter tells him, looking annoyed.

Tony’s lips quirk up as he turns back to his spell. “When I finish this, baby,” he tells Peter.

The frustrated noise out of Peter’s mouth is expected and amusing. “No, pay attention to me _now_ ,” Peter tells him, walking over and wrapping his arms around Tony’s waist, head perched on his shoulder. “I miss you,” he murmurs like Tony wasn’t in bed with him a few hours ago.

“I have to finish this now Peter, now give me an hour, hmm?” Peter gives him a _look_ and Tony knows its no dice so he sighs. “Come here, sit in my lap till I’m done,” he says, opening an arm for Peter to climb in. He does, readily and easily.

“You don’t need to prove yourself,” he says, laying a head on Tony’s shoulder. “If they don’t know how good you are by now there’s no proving it to them.”

Yeah, easy for Peter to say. Familiars have no issues fitting into a coven given how rare they are, and they choose the magic user anyway. Imagine everyone’s surprise when Wanda’s vision of a familiar appearing ended up choosing _Tony_. He wasn’t born like this, not like the rest of them, so functionally he’s human. But he’s always had a talent for working magic, especially around luck. The problem is that his spells seem to work incredibly well or they backfire spectacularly. Peter’s presence has at least balanced things out quite a bit, but the fact that Tony is new, inexperienced in comparison to the rest of the coven, and pretty much human doesn’t exactly leave him in a great spot.

“Mhm, says the one who can fit in anywhere,” Tony says, hand landing on Peter’s thigh.

“Well I don’t want to be _anywhere_ I want to be here, with you. I know we’re meant to be together, I could feel it from the moment I saw you,” Peter tells him, nosing at the space underneath Tony’s jaw and he sighs.

“If this spell goes wrong, I’m blaming you,” he says.

“Hmm. It won’t. Your magic is getting stronger, I can feel that too. So can Strange, its why he keeps looking at you like that,” Peter says.

Tony frowns, “what does that mean?” His magic has been growing stronger since he got into witchcraft in his early twenties, that kind of thing comes with practice and age.

“It means you need to let go of your insecurities and let your magic flourish. And to pay attention to me,” Peter says and Tony laughs.

“Nice ploy, now shush. I’m almost done,” Tony says.

Peter huffs, “wasn’t a ploy, ask Strange. And add more of the sage,” he murmurs, head settling back onto Tony’s shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for some mentions of abuse (Howard).

Eldrich magic isn’t Tony’s specialty and he suspects it never will be, but he’s functional. Peter sits off to the side, watching Strange attempt to kick his ass not that it’s working all that well. It would be if Strange was putting the effort in, he’s a master of his magic even among masters, but he’s in teaching mode at the moment. Wong watches off to the side too, hanging out on crow form only because his caws annoy Stephen, Tony suspects.

“You’re pitiful at this,” Stephen tells him despite the fact that he’s fended off all Stephen’s attacks thus far.

“Seem to be doing alright, but sure,” Tony mumbles. Peter leans forward on his pillow, eyes wide and Tony frowns.

Then he feels it, the slight tingle on the back of his neck and sighs as he turns and lifts a hand, blocking Strange’s attack except his hand isn’t higher than his waist and the magic he was about to use isn’t even fully formed yet. Strange looks as confused as he does. “How’d you know I was going to do that?” he asks and Tony shrugs.

“Felt it. Try staring at the back of my head less next time,” he says.

“I wasn’t staring at the back of your head, it was a split second decision,” Strange tells him.

“Does it really matter? Eldrich magic is never going to be the magic that calls to me,” he says. Even potions calls to him more than this though he suspects that’s because its functionally no different than the chemistry he used to do when he still spent more time with humans than witches. But it still doesn’t call to him.

“Of course it matters, some kind of magic is calling you and maybe you can’t feel that its this kind. Its not like you grew up with this magic, what could you possibly know about how it calls to people?” he asks and Tony grits his teeth, annoyed that once again not growing up with magic somehow translates to not knowing anything about it.

“That’s not what’s calling to him,” Peter says from the sidelines. “He’s right.”

Tony shouldn’t need Peter to confirm his feelings given that they’re _his_ feelings. But no one here will listen to him over Peter because Peter has always been a familiar, always been around magic. Tony stumbled into it and yes, he shows an aptitude for it that far outstrips Bucky and Steve, and sometimes even Sam, but of course he knows nothing about it. How could he, he’s only had to work five times as hard to figure out what the hell is going on while everyone else here had the benefit of the knowledge he worked hard on acquiring handed to them like common knowledge at a young age. Clearly he can’t possibly know anything.

“Fine. But something is and you should be doing more work to figure it out,” Strange says like every single magical text doesn’t say the exact opposite in regards to finding what calls. He doesn’t bother saying that though, he just rolls his eyes and walks away knowing Peter is trailing close behind.

*

Peter curls up next to him and Tony runs his fingers up and down his arm, happy that he’s around. “You’ll figure it out. Don’t push it either, it’ll come to you on its own time. Probably already has but we haven’t noticed it. Sometimes the magic is subtle.”

He sighs, “I know that. I’ve read hundreds of books on magic that all told me pretty much the same thing. I don’t see why everyone _else_ is pushing so hard. Why are they so focused on my specialty?” Its not like he isn’t good at anything else, he is. Exceptionally so depending on what kind of magic it is so specialty or no he’s useful to them as a coven.

“Tony, you know your specialty will tell them how you fit into the coven, who you work with most. I know you’ve read that in at least one book,” Peter says, nuzzling at his jawline.

He shakes his head, “not really applicable when you show a strong aptitude for most magic types. At that point you have a witch that’s useful to pretty much anyone as a power boost in spells. Specialties will take a back seat to that,” he says. “And even if that wasn’t true there’s the fact that no one here actually wants me around, they keep me here because my aunt Peggy told them to.”

“That’s not true!” Peter says, arm around Tony’s waist tightening for a moment. “I know they like you, they just… they’re just prejudice is all. They’ll get over it,” Peter tells him and Tony’s jaw clenches.

“So what, I get to deal with their shit until then?” he asks.

Peter shakes his head. “Of course not, that’s their problem and they should be the ones to fix it. Just… I think you should stop trying to impress them, its not going to happen when they’ve already made up their minds. You’re good, better than most of them, let them either realize it on their own or deal with it when you find something better,” Peter tells him.

Yeah, Tony suspects better prospects aren’t about to show up anytime soon.

*

Wanda looks more pissed off than usual so Tony raises an eyebrow. “An old associate of mine is stopping by. Do us all a favor and avoid him,” she says, walking off with that and _wow_ , okay. Wanda has a special dislike for him and Tony’s sure its personal, but he has no idea _how_ it could be when he only met her a couple years ago. She’s hated them since they were introduced, before that even he swears, but its not really gotten any better since actually meeting.

But he’s happy to avoid anyone associated with her if he can help it so he figures it’ll make everyone happy, but mostly him, to not have to deal with Wanda’s old friends. Peter finds him eventually, curling up in his lap despite the fact that he’s far too large to fit. Tony had no idea Savanah cats were that large until Peter but he does now know they make terrible lap cats and grumble at you about not having enough lap.

Peter meows at him and Tony sighs. “If you want to sit on my lap shrink,” he tells him, petting that space behind Peter’s ears that he likes. He thinks Peter doing that squinty eye thing that cats do when they’re happy is adorable but he keeps it to himself because the last time he did that Peter bit him about it. 

He gets a hint that someone is coming when Peter’s ears perk up and he looks behind him. Tony looks over and finds Wanda walking with some guy looking as pissed off as she had that morning or more. The guy spots them and goes to walk over, resulting in Wanda getting a brief panicked look on her face before he goes to reach out to stop him but she doesn’t quite catch him.

“You didn’t tell me someone in your coven had a familiar,” he says, reaching out to touch Peter but he hisses, slapping the man’s hand away, ears flattened to his head.

Tony frowns, petting him softly. “Yeah, he’s grumpy because he hasn’t had his morning coffee,” Tony says though he knows that’s not true. He doesn’t like this guy either, he can feel that there’s something off but he’s not about to insult the guy over nothing. Peter clearly feels no need to hold back though because he growls, teeth bared a little. Its unsettling to look at given that Tony knows he’s not really the type to get aggressive.

The man hums, clearly unconcerned. “So what’s you’re specialty then? Must be something, if they took you in,” he says, gesturing to Wanda behind him. Crucially he doesn’t look at her though or he would have seen her panicked ‘don’t talk!’ face.

He doesn’t really feel the need to hide his origins though so he doesn’t listen. “Not sure, got into this thing late compared to everyone else,” he says, holding Peter back as he tries to lean forward to growl more. “Stop that,” he tells Peter. Peter stops growling but his ears remain flattened to his skull. Tony figures he’ll take that as a win.

He gets the exact reaction he’d been expecting too, contempt mostly. “And that’s _your_ familiar?” he asks, disbelief tinged with disgust coloring his tone.

“So he tells me,” Tony says, rolling his eyes. God he hates witches sometimes.

Peter growls again but Tony shakes him a little so he stops. He does but he doesn’t look impressed about it. The guy turns to Wanda, “you let this familiar end up with some random human?” he asks, giving Tony a _look_.

“I didn’t let Peter do anything, Peter decided on his own what he was to do. Which is our way. Tony is a proficient magic user anyway and Peter has helped with his focus,” she says. Its probably the nicest thing she’s ever said to him or about him and dragging this asshole off is probably the nicest thing she’s done for Peter.

He looks down at the cat and Peter jumps out of his lap, shifting back into human form. “I do _not_ like that guy,” he says, looking surprisingly pissed off about it.

“Baby, leave it alone,” Tony tells him.

Peter frowns, picking himself back up and immediately making his way back into Tony’s lap. He smiles a little despite himself and curls his arms around Peter’s waist. “Couldn’t you feel that?” he asks. “That… I don’t know, _skeezy_ feeling?”

He shrugs, “sure. Pretty much confirmed it when he decided my human lineage wasn’t good enough but I expected that.”

Peter shivers, “well I think its more than that,” he murmurs and Tony knows he’s right, but whether or not it’ll matter to them is another question entirely.

*

Aldrich Killian is the guy’s name and he doesn’t much like it when Tony tells him his name is exactly the kind of shit he’d see at the expensive private school his parents sent him to. He does, however, learn he’s got something of an affinity for fire and Tony has always held an interest in elemental magic though he’s shown a strong aptitude for most elements. Something Killian hadn’t believed until he easily waved off some of his fire and Tony, if he’s honest, is kind of mad he didn’t even put effort into it. Certainly not enough effort to look as shocked as he was.

The good news is that no one else seems to like him either but Sam is the only one who’s willing to openly state it. Well, and Stephen but Stephen looks vaguely pissed off at everything and everyone he comes in contact with so that’s not unusual. “Yeah, he’ll be gone soon so don’t worry,” Steve tells him, coming up from behind him and Tony squints.

“I’m not that concerned about his coming or going and he’s not going to go easy,” he says.

Steve frowns, “he came for some of Wanda’s herbs, he’ll be gone by the morning.”

“Yeah, no he won’t,” Tony says, unsure why he’s so certain about this. “And keep him away from Peter, he creeps him out.” Peter has spent the whole night as a cat strictly because he’s faster that way and he doesn’t usually prefer his animal form. Tony would be more worried about him if he didn’t know Peter is competent with his own magic even if familiars don’t have much of a gift for focusing it outward like witches do. Still, he doesn’t want Killian anywhere near Peter and its been abundantly clear that he’s been testing his luck. Peter is agile though, and aware. And it helps that Killian shows an obvious distaste for him so the closer Peter is to Tony the further he is from Killian. So its weird that they end up separated so much and Tony is sure magic has something to do with it but it isn’t in traceable amounts. Which he’s sure is also purposeful.

“What are you talking about?” Steve asks, drawing him back into the conversation.

Tony would like to give him some kind of explanation but he shrugs, “just trust me on this,” he says despite the fact that Steve doesn’t trust him on anything.

Wanda breaks up their conversation by walking up looking largely unimpressed. “We’ll have to deal with him until morning at least. He wants one of the night flowers at full bloom,” she mumbles, looking more unimpressed than he’s seen her all day.

Tony clenches his jaw. “Of course he does,” he mumbles, walking off to go collect Peter and go to bed.

*

When he wakes up Peter is gone and that’s not unusual but the fact that Tony doesn’t _feel_ anything is. He frowns, trying to concentrate on the bond but doesn’t find anything much. He tries to remember if Peter had anything to drink because that will numb it but he doesn’t remember anything of that either. _Shit_. He makes his way out of bed and looks around quickly in Peter’s favorite hiding spots. Maybe he’s gone off as a cat to hide in a small hole or something- its weird but not unheard of.

Peter isn’t in any of his usual spots so Tony looks around the rest of the apartment, not finding him anywhere in that either. _Fuck_. “Peter?” he calls, hoping that maybe he missed him somewhere and he’s fine but he doesn’t respond. Tony pauses for a moment, unsure of what the hell he’s supposed to do. Usually he knows where Peter is through the bond and shit, he can’t even _remember_ the last time he didn’t feel Peter. Probably one of the times he got drunk and left Tony in a panic but its been a long time, too long for him to remember how the hell he managed to find Peter again.

_Damnit_. He swears under his breath and grabs his coat, all but running out the door when he happens to run straight into Peter. Kind of. He’s curled up just out of the way of the door looking like… well, shit. “Jesus Peter what the-” he cuts himself off and throws himself down at Peter’s feet, gathering him into his arms. He’s shivering but he’s running a fever and his face is so pale Tony isn’t even sure if it can _get_ any whiter. And his eyes are bloodshot. “Peter?” he says, moving his hair out of his face.

He makes a small, hurt noise and curls himself into Tony’s chest. “Knew you would find me,” he murmurs, shivering against Tony’s body. Tony swears under his breath again and pats Peter down, finding the crystal easily enough. He grabs his own too, and mumbles the incantation. They glow and he throws them aside, use for them over. He has no idea if anyone will notice theirs glowing given the time of night but when they do they’ll come. In the meantime he focuses on Peter, on their bond.

Peter is weak, he can feel it, but with the immediate contact he can feel the bond again however much it feels like its slipping. He doesn’t let it though, holding on to it for what feels like dear life as Peter pants softly against him.

“What _happened_?” Stephen asks and Tony’s not surprised that he got here first. Given the way his magic works he wouldn’t be surprised if his crystal outright alerted him to Tony’s distress call.

“Don’t know. I woke up and he wasn’t there so I went to go find him and,” Tony gestures to Peter in way of explaining his condition. Stephen has functioning eyes, he can see what’s going on.

Stephen kneels next to him, taking in the situation for a moment and not much more. “Okay, so you nee to-” Tony cuts him off.

“Don’t fucking patronize me Strange, I know what to do,” he snaps. Like he’s never considered looking up how to care for a familiar, like Peter hasn’t _explained_ how things work? He knows damn well how to handle this. “Just figure out what the fuck happened,” he tells him. That’s kind of his job anyway, outside of teaching. Magic police and Stephen happens to be pretty good at detecting and eliminating magical threats. So Tony figures he can deal with this while he deals with Peter.

Stephen only considers it for a moment before he nods and stands. Tony ignores the way the orange magic falls over him and Peter while he focuses his attention back on Peter. Whatever Strange is doing he’s sure its necessary to figuring out what happened to Peter and if it isn’t Tony will fry him for it when Peter doesn’t feel like he’s about to die.

Peter makes a small whimpering noise and Tony shushes him softly. “Its okay, baby, I’ve got you,” he murmurs, focusing more of his magic on Peter. It helps, if marginally, and it occurs to Tony that he doesn’t _have_ enough magic to heal Peter at all. He’s not a witch, he wasn’t _born_ with the gifts he’s acquired over the years. Unlike everyone else he’s only got a finite amount of magic to give.

The worry is short lived as he pushes it away. If he doesn’t have enough magic to heal him fine, Peter can choose to bond with someone new and Tony will be left magically burnt out permanently but its a risk he’s more than willing to take if it means Peter will be okay. He carefully runs his hands up and down Peter’s back, murmuring to him softly as Strange’s magic glows brighter.

“What’s-” Someone new says but Strange shushes them fast. Tony ignores the hushed voices around him as he feels his magic slip away. The color starts to return to Peter’s face and he smiles, happy to see that Peter is improving until it feels like the connection _snaps_ and Tony passes out. The last thing he remembers hearing is Peter frantically calling his name.

*

Tony is familiar with dream walking, studied it a bit with Stephen but Stephen never cared much for people in his head and he never managed to get past the outer walls of Tony’s mind. Said there were too many thorns, whatever that meant.

“You’re a tough nut to crack, I’ll give you that,” someone says and Tony doesn’t need to turn to see who it is. He can see Killian in the reflection of the mirror and he frowns, looking around for a moment before he sees a fallen baton. One of those colorful ones kids get at a carnival. He picks it up and tests its strength, surprised that it doesn’t seem to give easy. Good.

Tony smashes the mirror in front of him and Killian laughs, “idiot. That isn’t even _me_ ,” he says and Tony knows that.

“How’d you get past the outer layer of my mind?” Tony asks as he smashes another mirror. He’s never really liked fun houses anyway, they always creeped him out.

“You let me in when you let Peter in. I’ll give you this, you have _strong_ mental defenses,” Killian tells him.

Tony shrugs, lifetime of trust issues and abuse will do that to a person. He knows that the kind of trust issues he has translate neatly to a strong mental wall around the mind. Stephen needed to work to have a defense from Tony, Tony naturally kept everyone out. Even Wanda had trouble getting in and mental manipulation is her specialty. And the way she found her way in was through his fear. She described it as the most potent emotion he had, the one that would slip past his mental defenses enough for her to slip her way in. 

Since then he’s worked on turning that weakness into something of a defense in itself, leading anyone who tried to get into his head straight into his worst memories. He’ll have to relive them, but the person in his mind will too and Tony knows what to expect in a way they wouldn’t. His fear is his to control, no one else’s. The last time he tested it Wanda got all pale and silent and avoided him for a week so he assumes it worked.

“So I’ve been told,” Tony says, smashing another mirror.

“What the hell are you doing?” Killian snaps and Tony turns, noting that the smashed mirror behind him is reflecting his back. Its the only mirror reflecting his back.

“Figuring out where you are,” he tells Killian. “Can’t use the mirrors to move if they’re smashed, can you?” Dreamscapes are tricky and mirrors are the easiest way to move. They’re also the fastest way to get caught, which is why Tony never used them when he built his defenses. Instead he used the reflective surfaces of the objects naturally found in his mind. Harder to catch him that way and there’s a good chance only he knows what’s in his mind, meaning he’s fighting on his own turf rather than someone else’s. Killian frowns as the funhouse melts away, fading into the deceptively warm living room space. “You want in my mind? Have at it,” he tells Killian.

He whirls around, obviously confused as Howard stalks in looking pissed off as usual. “What the fuck did you do?” he asks Tony, Killian now, and he shakes his head.

“What?” he asks, not following the script but that doesn’t really matter when Tony knows how this memory goes and they’re in _his_ space. If Killian wants his magic to work he’s going to need more fuel to make it run. Tony doesn’t need to work hard on concentration at all, not in a memory that’s all but burnt into his brain.

“Fucking ungrateful little _shit_ ,” Howard snarls, grabbing Tony by the arm and yanking him forward.

“Let me go you fucking prick,” Killian snaps, sounding strange using the voice of Tony’s six year old counter part.

In the original memory Tony squirmed, tried to get away because he knew what was coming not that it helped any. He’d been a child, Howard was a grown man, he never had a chance so when Howard hits him he remembers it vividly. He winces, but keeps the control as Killian freaks out, obviously unsure how to handle being stuck in an unfamiliar mindscape and in someone else’s worst memories to boot.

“Tony,” a voice to his left says and Tony frowns, turning to face it. For a moment he thinks its Killian pulling some kind of trick on him but he hears it again. “Tony,” Peter says and his eyebrows draw together.

“Peter, what are you-” he spins, nearly losing his balance as the world around him fades off into something else entirely. Behind him he hears panting so he turns, finding Killian on the ground wide eyed. He looks around and finds himself in something of a wasteland devoid of all life minus what looks to be a dead wall of thorns. He reaches out to touch and the branches seem to move away as he gets closer to them.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Strange tells him. “They’re deceptively open to invitation.”

Tony pulls his hand away but the vines don’t move back. “I guess this is what you meant when you said my mind has too many thorns.”

“Trying to get past that was impossible and believe me I tried. Clearly Killian is more talented at dream walking,” Strange murmurs and Tony frowns.

“Wait, why are we here?”

“Peter,” Killian spits. “Must have drawn you out like I drew you in.”

Stephen nods. “You used him as a way to get into his defenses, I figured if he called to Tony he might drop his defenses for a moment, meet me halfway so I could find the two of you. Wanda informed me that I wanted no part in what lies beyond the wall.”

Killian looks haunted at that too and Tony rolls his eyes. “Oh get that look off your face, that’s not even the worst I had to offer,” he says, shaking his head.

“The _fear_ ,” Killian says, eyes wide.

“I was six, dumbass. Of course I was afraid.”

Stephen frowns but doesn’t ask questions as he pulls Killian from the ground of Tony’s mind space. “You’re obviously under arrest,” Stephen tells him.

*

Peter still looks pale, shaken. Tony can’t say he blames him given that Killian’s dreamwalking didn’t work on Tony for obvious reasons. Apparently the spell he had in mind required _Tony_ but in the absence of being able to slip into his mind and attempt to control it he’d had to jump to Peter’s. Tony guesses he has less strong mental defenses or Killian was able to push past him. Wanda tells him he’s talented at dream walking but Tony doesn’t see it.

“Of course you don’t, your mind is the strongest asset you have, assuming its not overburdened,” she murmurs, arms crossed as she looks off into the distance angrily. Not entirely unusual.

“I guess,” Tony murmurs. He looks over at Peter, who seems to be avoiding looking at him and he sighs. Poor thing it probably traumatized but Tony’s not really much of a stranger to having his mind messed with so he’ll figure it out. They’ll figure it out together.

“I don’t need to guess, I know. That intelligence of yours is difficult to get past on the best of days but when you’re focused? Its almost impossible unless I find something to lack onto. Its always fear with you,” she says but he already knew that. “High anxiety levels make it easier to find a way in, not that I want to be there once I get there. What did Killian see?”

“The living room,” Tony tells her, knowing what she’s seen.

She frowns, “that’s it. And he reacted like that?”

He shrugs, “guess he’s not as strong as he thinks he is.”

“Oh, he is. Its just strange that _that_ managed to disturb him so much,” Wanda murmurs, eyebrows drawn together in confusion.

“Well, it probably helped that he was me,” Tony says and Wanda’s yes grow wide.

“He was _what_?”

“Me, Maximoff, pay attention,” he tells her.

“You made him _you_?” she asks, shocked.

“He wanted to be in my mind so damn bad I figured I’d give him a taste of what it’s like. Didn’t like it much,” Tony says but Sam’s looking at him like he’s nuts too.

“Jesus _Christ_ man. That’s some fucked up shit. Remind me to not piss you off,” he says, shaking his head.

Tony squints a little, “that’s not that big of a deal,” he says. “He started it.”

Sam snorts, “well that’s one _fuck_ of a way to finish it. Maybe dream walking is your thing,” he says.

“Its not, he as just pissed off an motivated and he’s always been a quick thinker,” Wanda says.

“Well you’re weirdly flush with compliments today,” he says, giving her a _look_. He’s half tempted to ask if she’s been brain swapped or something but the odd look she gives him tells him to keep his mouth shut.

“I compliment you all the time,” she says.

Tony lets out a short laugh, “ _when_? The nicest thing you say to me on a regular basis is ‘give me the sugar’ when you want coffee in the morning.”

Sam laughs a little, “yeah, that’s true, you kind of suck at compliments,” he says.

“Like you’re one to talk, the nicest thing _you’ve_ said to me was that my flowers look nice and _Peter_ planted them,” Tony says.

Now Sam looks confused. “Oh come on, I’ve had to have said something nicer than _that_ ,” he says.

“You haven’t. None of you do, all of you consistently undermine me and make snide comments about my lack of magical skill. Newsflash assholes, being born a witch doesn’t make you good at magic, studying does and next to Stephen I’ve done more of that than any of you. Clearly indulging in that much knowledge paid off, I managed to toss Killian into and then out of my mind with minimal difficulties.” He can at least see the use in having someone have access to his mind in a way he hadn’t when Strange first suggested it so there’s that. Though he supposes he has Peter for that.

And Peter has been deceptively quiet so Tony ignores the rest of the coven for the moment to go over to him, pulling him aside. Peter lets Tony pull him along and he frowns. “Are you okay?” he asks. He looks okay, shaken, but okay.

For a moment Peter just stands there, motionless and it makes Tony worried but then he launches himself forward, pressing his face into Tony’s chest. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to I didn’t even know what I- I’m _so_ sorry,” he repeats, tears falling down his face and Tony doesn’t know what the hell he’s on about.

“Peter, what are you sorry about?” he asks.

Its enough to shock Peter into sniffling for a moment. “I let Killian in,” he says softly. I didn’t mean to, I didn’t even realize-”

“Peter, its _fine_. I can handle myself. Trust me, I’m maybe a little too familiar with my own mind. It wasn’t even that hard to deal with him.” He feels like it should have been more difficult, even _Wanda_ said Killian was good and Wanda doesn’t hand out compliments often not to mention her definition of good is skewed. Her ability to manipulate minds is near unparalleled, she can get into anyone’s head provided she’s given space to figure out what makes a tougher mind tick. If she thinks Killian is good Tony really shouldn’t have had that easy of a time dealing with him.

“You mean it?” Peter asks, pulling him from his thoughts.

“I… I mean yeah. I’m just glad you’re okay,” he murmurs, brushing Peter’s hair back out of his face.

Peter nods a little, looking somewhat confused. “Yeah, that was so weird. I remember feeling like I was going to die and then there was like… this _burst_ of power. It felt like I had access to so much more than what was on the surface but…” Peter trails off and Tony doesn’t know what any of that means. He’s not sure Peter does either.

*

“He could have been perfect,” Killian mumbles, glaring at Tony specifically and he rolls his eyes.

“Peter was already perfect you pompous jackass,” Tony tells him.

Stephen shakes his head, “and I’m done with you. Bye bye,” he says, waving his hand and Killian disappears. “I hate the ones that think they’re right, they irk me,” he mumbles. “Speaking of, without your magic at full power you might be able to finally figure out what your specialty is.”

“You’re all stupid,” Wong says, stepping out of the shadows. Stephen rolls his eyes as if he’s not more dramatic than Wong, who errs _much_ more on the side of practical. “The signs has been there since the beginning, Tony’s specialty is literally the source of all his magic and its why he’s so powerful.”

Yeah, Tony thinks he might take back Wong not being dramatic. “Uh huh. Spit it out,” he tells him.

Wong looks around, raising an eyebrow at both him and Stephen. “Oh you two are _dense_ for such powerful magic users. He’s a prophet! How can you possibly have missed that!” he asks, waving an arm around.

Stephen squints, “a _prophet_? Those are _exceedingly_ rare, Wong.”

“That’s your first attempt to debunk that? Yeah, I can do you one better. If I can supposedly predict the future how the hell did I not know that Killian would try to nearly kill Peter because he decided he deserved a familiar more than I did?” Seems like an obvious counterpoint, a better one than but they’re _rare_ but okay.

Wong gives him an unimpressed look. “That’s not how a prophet works and I know you know that. What you do is feel out the most possible potential futures, which might I remind you you _did_ when you noted Killian wasn’t going to be easy to get rid of and implied we’d be dealing with him for longer than we thought. Which ended up being true. You won’t ever be able to read the future with perfect accuracy, but you do have a knack for being right about the big things. Always have been,” he says.

“Oh, you did tell us about Pietro,” Stephen says, going ashen.

Tony rolls his eyes, “I didn’t predict Pietro’s death you twits, I just said that someone else should go deal with Klaw.”

“Because the most likely event you sensed was probably Pietro’s death,” Wong says.

“That’s insane. And barely even a connection,” Tony tells them.

“You predicted Peter,” Wanda says, appearing in the doorway and Tony squints.

“No, _you_ predicted Peter.” They all watched her have a vision.

Wanda shakes her head though. “Your mind had been difficult to get into, at that moment I was trying to break in when I felt something and latched on. That was the vision of Peter and if what Wong is saying is correct it makes sense that I could see it with such clarity. It wasn’t just the most possible future, it was inevitable and your power combined with mine made it far easier to see.”

Tony rolls his eyes, “you’re all nuts,” he mumbles but something tells him Peter isn’t going to side with him on this.

*

“It makes _sense_ Tony,” Peter says. “And I feed off your magic, that explains why I didn’t like Killian.”

“You didn’t like Killian because he has serial killer eyes, Peter,” Tony tells him.

“I have bad instincts!” Peter says, throwing up his hands. “I suck at it, I try really hard but I always trust the wrong people and I always end up hurt because of it. Until I met you anyway. I can feel your natural suspicion, ick up on things I never used to be able to. I never would have seen that coming if it wasn’t for your magic,” Peter tells him.

He sighs. “You aren’t going to let this go, are you?” he asks.

Peter shakes his head, walking over and perching himself in Tony’s lap. “Can’t hurt to test it. I’m definitely going to screw up someone’s day and I’m sure you can figure out who.”

“Wong, because you think chasing him around as a cat is funny but he’s going to peck your eyes out one of these days and I can’t even be mad at him when he does,” Tony says.

Peter looks enthused, “you’re so good already,” he says, leaning in and kissing Tony softly.

Yeah, this prophet thing is insanity but he figures he can talk Stephen into getting a little entertainment over Wong being chased around. They can make bets on whether or not this is the time Wong decides fuck it, he’ll peck Peter half to death to deter him from every trying his luck again.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/spidercakes)


End file.
